Obasanjo Bombs Tinubu: Your Baba-Go-Slow 'Emilokan' Reign Has Confirmed Nigeria As Failing State, Sinking Into Chaos

Nigeria’s former President Olusegun Obasanjo has lamented that Nigeria’s current economic situation is very bad and that the situation is made worse by the unwillingness of the leaders to take responsibility.

Obasanjo made this statement in his keynote address at the Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum, held on Saturday at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, USA.

In his speech, titled, “Leadership Failure and State Capture in Nigeria,” he expressed concern over the country's dire situation, noting, “as the world can see and understand, Nigeria’s situation is bad.”

Using Singapore as an example of a country with effective leadership, Obasanjo highlighted how the government there has remained responsive to the evolving needs of its citizens, making significant investments in sectors like healthcare, education, and social welfare.

He said, “Nigeria’s situation, as we can see and understand, is bad. The more the immorality and corruption of a nation, the more the nation sinks into chaos, insecurity, conflict, discord, division, disunity, depression, youth restiveness, confusion, violence, and underdevelopment.

“That’s the situation mostly in Nigeria in the reign of Baba-go-slow and Emilokan. The failing state status of Nigeria is confirmed and glaringly indicated and manifested for every honest person to see through the consequences of the level of our pervasive corruption, mediocrity, immorality, misconduct, mismanagement, perversion, injustice, incompetence and all other forms of iniquity. But yes, there is hope.”

The former President, while quoting from a short, classic treatise published in 1983 called, “The Trouble with Nigeria” by Chinua Achebe, said, “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership.

“The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership.”

According to him, two prominent US intellectuals, Robert Rotberg and John Campbell, had once raised the alarm about the failing status of Nigeria and its inevitable effects on the African continent given the country’s size, economic viability, and population, among others.

He described state capture “as one of the most pervasive forms of corruption, a situation where powerful individuals, institutions, companies, or groups within or outside a country use corruption to shape a nation’s policies, legal environment, and economy, to benefit their own private interests.

“State capture is not always overt and obvious. It can also arise from the more subtle close alignment of interests between specific business and political elites through family ties, friendships, and the intertwined ownership of economic assets.

“What is happening in Nigeria – right before our eyes – is state capture: The purchase of National assets by political elites – and their family members – at bargain prices, the allocation of national resources – minerals, land, and even human resources – to local, regional, and international actors. It must be prohibited and prevented through local and international laws.

“Public institutions such as the legislature, the executive, the judiciary, and regulatory agencies both at the federal and local levels are subject to capture.

Credit: Urhobo One Love

Vice President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Mangue, don tok say dem go begin install camera for offices of all state officials.

Dis dey come afta alleged viral sex tapes of di former head of di kontri anti-graft National Agency for Financial Investigation (ANIF), Baltasar Ebang Engonga, bin go viral on social media.

E add say any pesin wey dem catch engaging in sexual relation for offices go face di consequences.

"Di goment go soon implement di installation of surveillance cameras in all offices of State bodies.

"We don make dis provision to ensure compliance with di law by officials and to eradicate unseemly and unlawful behavior.

"We no go admit any misconduct wey go denigrates di integrity of our administration and pipo wey engage in such practices go face drastic measures,” di vice president tok.

Credit: BBC News Pidgin

Read more on dis tori for here: https://www.bbc.com/pidgin/articles/czd5y25gdezo

“Paul Okoye calls for President Tinubu To Reduce Fuel Price To ₦450 if he truly loves Nigeria. Is Pual Okoye prepared to slash the cost of streaming his music by half? Then why is he asking the President to do what he, as a private citizen, cannot do and has not done? Does he not love his fans? “ - Reno Omokri

Country without a Direction

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has said President Bola Tinubu has effectively mortgaged Nigeria’s future to himself, his family and associates to an extent that even after he leaves office, it would be nearly impossible for the nation to break free from his shackles.

Atiku, who was the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in 2023, compared Tinubu’s integration of his business interests into Lagos’s public enterprises to his efforts at the federal level in a statement yesterday by his media office in Abuja.

Atiku said: “Just as Alpha Beta, Primero, and others act as Tinubu’s proxies in Lagos, managing critical sectors and generating revenue for him and his family, he has begun to replicate this at the federal level.”

He expressed astonishment at the operations of the NNPC and how the government-owned oil company had put its retail arm under the control of OVH, a company in which Oando, led by Wale Tinubu, owns 49 per cent.

The Turaki Adamawa expressed regret that his intention to privatise the NNPC and increase its transparency has been overshadowed by what he describes as criminal hijack of NNPC by corporate cabals around the current president.

He further said, “In October 2022, just five months before the elections, the NNPC Retail controversially announced it had acquired OVH and all its filling stations. NNPCL already had about 550 filling stations across the country but claimed it was enhancing its capacity by acquiring OVH, which had only 94 stations and 100 others leased.

“The NNPC did not disclose the purchase price of OVH or the terms of the acquisition. A Freedom of Information request by Premium Times was also rejected by the NNPC, which claimed to be a private company despite still being government-owned.

“Following this dubious deal, Mele Kyari was controversially retained as NNPC GMD despite his incompetence. Tinubu then appointed his former boss at Mobil, turned ally, Pius Akinyelure, as NNPC Chairman, while he himself took on the role of Minister of Petroleum.”

Credit: guardian.ng